After selling my beloved Kang-Poo van, I clearly learned nothing and, while on a weekend break in Newcastle with my partner, I did what I always do and started browsing Facebook Marketplace. That’s how this 2014 Mégane Sport Tourer GT Line followed me home.. Ironically, it’s a VK plate registered in Gloucester, serviced in Gloucester, and now I’ve brought it back home. It’s clearly seen more of the country than I have.
There are a few little issues to sort, but the biggest one is that the horn doesn’t work at all. There are a couple of other niggles too: it needs a TomTom SD card, the rear parking sensors don’t work (if I turn them on in the vehicle settings the service spanner comes on and I get a “check sensors” message), and the speakers don’t work either. From the receipts I can see a previous owner has already investigated the audio issue, fuses were checked and no fault found, and everything I’ve read so far points towards the amp in the head unit failing.
First priority though is fixing the horn, because silently gesturing at other drivers isn’t very effective. When I press the horn, I get absolutely nothing, not even a click from the relay, which from what I’ve read so far, I should at least be hearing.
I’ve got a mustimeter and before I start pulling the airbag off the steering wheel and checking continuity from the clock spring back to the fuse board, I wanted to ask where the best place to start is. Is there a simpler or more obvious check I should be doing first? Horn itself, relay, fuse (even if it looks fine), or something else that commonly fails on these before I go dismantling half the car?
I’ve got one of these, 1.6 chain engine, I’ve had it going on 8 years, sips diesel and 20 quid tax, so I’m reluctant to let it go, does easy 60mpg on long trips, fast enough for a tight arse like me.
I’ll read with interest what you can find out about horn, mine is intermittent, it doesn’t work unless you press, press, press it multiple times , then it’ll be fine …well good enough to get a ticket on it…I never use it, I just trundle along ignoring the piss poor standard of driving these days, they’re all thick as pig shit , so what’s the point?
Only issues I’ve had are broken charge wire that took some digging to sort , front strut mounts parting that caused front end knock and rear springs that broke into three, but I slung some 225 cup springs in, just fitted, drop it’s arse end by 10mm I think, but I had, so used them, free fix.
GT line springs are an oddity, so they were fairly minty to buy new.
It’s on 82k , so I’ll just run it until it throws a wobbler I can’t, or can’t be bothered to fix.
I’ve got a dodgy speaker, but other than that it’s fault free. ( It’ll let me down now… won’t it? )
Being a modern diesel I always pick fast A road routes and hold it in fourth to get it to regen, in not sure of parameters…think it’s above a certain speed/revs , but I’ve never had a dpf etc issue.
I’d honestly struggle to find something to replace it, MK4 are holding their money, and most have done more miles than mine.
Is there a difference between the GT line suspension and non GT line? What did you slap on the front or just roll with the 10mm drop at the rear?
I suspect my top mounts are going as I hear a little knock knock now and again on unguilting surfaces. Mine doesn’t have AdBlue but not sure if it has a DPF or needs regen but I do a fair bit of motorway and long journeys and never had a DPF issue in any of mine so I must be doing something right…
I looked at MK4 but as you say the money is strong and for one I was willing to pay for had moon miles or dog rough. I looked for a 1.6 but after parting with £700+ for MTC to change the chain on my Trafic campervan I felt I’d stick with the 1.5 belt.
Horns usually at the front under the bumper dont they, so bumper off, remove horn, test on battery. Then play the game of follow the wiring back, test relay etc. And check your fuses.
GT line springs are different part number, bit stiffer/shorter to standard model, 225 cup rear springs were a midge shorter, gnats bollock smaller internal diameter, it was temporary fix, that’s now permanent, it was sat on its arse on bust springs so it better now…only banged them on cos it’s easy, fronts are OE.
Just tried my horn dead as a dodo, but if I keep pressing it, hold it on eventually it works and stays working until I don’t use it for… don’t know, I reckon horn is fecked, as after I’ve got it going it works perfectly, so time idle that screws it up.
Only other thing it’s had us a rad, started leaking in France, had to keep topping car up, it was truly bolloxed when I took it off, warped all along bottom, luckily I could see Valeo number on top and got exact badger from Autodoc for about a ton, pleasantly surprised how easy it was to change , other than bumper off, AC rad just swung out of the way, sat on a chair to one side, old off new on, bosh
I only went for 1.6 as it was 130 burps against 1.5 at 110 and I’m a power mad Mofo…
I have a 2012 1.5 gt line one of these ,and love it , goes well does good mpg free rad tax . Had a few issues but most wear and tear . I had a knocking noise pas front turned out the front shock was worn out and had side movement . replaced all f shocks as fairly high milage and there not to bad price wise . Tom Tom card off ebay updated the sat nav maps cheap enough . Horn wise i would check the horn and connector first then the wiring were it goes to the fuse box . Most of the problems have been corroded wires on mine .
Inspired by butlers old smoker, the blue pre facelift he had. I wanted similar spec with a sunroof but lets be honest, its just something else to go wrong on these things…
I’ve already had the intrusive thoughts of changing the springs etc but I need to remind myself this is a long term daily now that’s actually quite pleasant to drive so lets not go and f**k it all up and slap some stiffer springs etc on it. I’ve see if I sit on the horn for a few mins and keep pressing it to see if it jumps into life?
Do I get a tomtom card with updated maps or just a card and then update them via a laptop? I did wonder there must be some kind of hacked version on the internet somewhere? I’ve seen cards as little as £15 so I’ll grab one of them and slap that in. Not that I’m going to use it but at least I know it works rather than drive around with a blank screen displaying the time all the time.
I bought one of the updated eBay ones, no problem, other than they actually build new roads in Europe , rather than just add more traffic lights and roundabouts like here in UK, so even after a couple of years I find myself seemingly driving through fields when abroad
Wonder if head units were prone to failing as mine isn’t found on clip, might have have been changed? It works other than a rear speaker is deffo duff.
Good motors these, spec like an RS250, know a bloke who mourns his after it was written off, says if I get shut of mine he’d dump Mondeo in a heartbeat
I’ll have a look at the updated ones on eBay. I’d read that the head units can suffer with amp failure, but if that was the case I’d expect everything to stop working rather than just the rear speakers, so that sounds more like a speaker or wiring issue.
On a related note, my horn randomly started working again this morning, although it seems a bit intermittent now. Encouraging, but also slightly suspicious.
Think i paid around £21 a couple of years ago carminat live sd card has always worked well and got me where i am going , all the functions i need seem to work
Get some springs in it. Needs mk3 meg rs running gear etc in the future. Theres one done in Germany and its epic.
I dont think you can access the stereo via the clone clips @Turbell . Basically, you need to access can multimedia via different connections on the obd, clip should do it but i think the clone interface doesnt work so well.
Oh don’t, I’ve already had those bad thoughts… but please tell me more.
I will find some H&R lowering springs at a minimum but I’m guessing its like what people have done with the Kangoo, front assy with hubs and drive shafts. Can then run brembos etc
I tested the fitted horn directly off a battery and it works perfectly, so the horn unit itself is confirmed good. I didn’t have my multimeter with me at the time so I couldn’t test the voltage at the horn plug.
My thinking is that because the horn does sometimes work, it’s unlikely to be a blown fuse, if the fuse was gone I’d expect no operation at all.
At this point I’m suspecting the wiring is mostly OK as it is clearly making a connection intermittently. This has me looking further upstream, specifically towards the clock spring / steering wheel side, possibly between the clock spring and the horn button (airbag).
Do these have a relay in line? I think newer stuff uses a crap meep meep horn thats fairly low draw, I dont think its relayed…its only older stuff with the 2 tone airhorn like the 21 Turbo thats got the inline relay.
I quizzed Mick at Diamond on Saturday. ( fetching my lads new to him 300 Trophy …that’s a tale to tell )
He said it was usually horns , or switches in steering wheel .
Noticed a few S/H wheel centres on eBay, that usually points to there being a market for them?
